Tenths to august bueckhaedt



(No Model.)

1:". J. WEISS.

SURFACE CONDENSER.

Patented Aug. 7, 18.88.

area rains FRANZ JOSEPH WEISS, OF BASLE, swrrznnnnnunssicnon OF THREE- TENTHS TO AUGUST BUROKHARDT, OF SAME PLACE.

SURFACE=CONDENSER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 387373, dated August '7, 1888.

Application filed January 26, 1888. Serial No. 261,971. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FRANZ J osnrn Weiss, of the city of Basle, in the Canton of Basle and Republic of Switzerland, have invented acertain new and useful Improvement in the Arrangement of Surface Condensers of Sea-Going Steamers, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, and to the letters of reference marked thereon.

This invention relates to an improved arrangement of surface-condensers for use on sea-going vessels.

The air or hot-water pumps in surface-condensers as heretofore used on sea-going vessels, and serving the purpose of removing from the condenser air and water together, would require, theoretically, asize only so much larger than that of the feed-pumps as is necessary for removing from the condenser, together with the water of condensation, the air entering the said condenser at permeable places. According to former practice the said air or hot-water pumps were made many times larger (often twenty tothirty or forty times as large as the feed-pumps) in order to allow surface-condensers in case of fouling to be worked with injection likewise, in which case the air or hot-water pump would have to remove from the condenser not only the mass of water of condensation increased by the injectionwater, but also the air which had been ab sorbed by the said injection-water, which of course will require a considerable size or capacity of air-pump. During the normal operation of the eondenserthatis to say, in its action as surface-condenser-theair-pump being made by far too large, and not finding a sufficient quantity of air in the condenser, will suck or draw off without any use a great quantity of steam and force the latter into the atmospheric air, which'will require a certain amount of laborthat is to say, about as much labor as would be necessary for compressing t0 thetension of the outside atmospheric air the same quantity of air having the lower tension of the condenser. This labor and the quantity of fuel required for overcoming the same are simply lost or wasted, since the sucking off of the steam from the condenser is of no use and merely an evil,to be considered in= evitable with condensers of this kind as heretofore arranged. This lost labor can neither be reduced or done away with during the action of the condenser as surface-condenser by allowing the air-pumps to make fewer strokes, since, for well-known reasons,these large airpumps are always coupled with the main engine, so that they will make the same number of strokes as the latter, although they would be required to make fewer strokes in operation for surfacecondensation than they would for injection-condensation. At the present time, by reason of the experience gathered with regard to the construction and operation ofsurface-condensers, it seldom happens that it becomes a necessity to work the said condensers as injection-condensers likewise. The possibility of still being able to do the latter in exceptional cases is therefore bought,- in the arrangement as heretofore, at the cost of an air or hot-water pump by far toolarge for the regular or normal opcration-that is, surface-condensationsaid pump sucking off during the regular operation a useless quantity of steam, for the compression of which labor, and consequently fuel, is wasted in a useless manner.

The present invention comprises a novel arrangement of the condenser and its pumps, which will likewise render it possible, if required, to allow of operating the surface-condenser as injectioncondenser, but with the difference that neither in the one nor in the other case is labor, and consequently fuel, Wasted, and that the pumps in either case will have to perform the exact amount of work required, while, moreover, the whole pumping installation can be made smaller, and therefore the engine-room, generally so very narrow, will be less crowded.

The novel arrangement of such surface-condensers is essentially as follows: The feedpump is always made sufficiently large to be able to remove all the water of condensation from the condenser. If, now, the feed-pump is arranged low enough, so that the water from the condenser will by its own gravity run into the said pump, the latter can then assume that part of the duty or work of the former large hot-water pump which relates to the removal of the water from the condenser, so that the feed-pu mp, being so arranged, can force the water directly into the steam-boiler. To do the other part of the work performed by the former air or hot-water pumpthat is to say, the work of removing the air from the condenser-a dry vacuum-pump is provided, which will draw the air from the upper part of the condenser. By these means the large air or hot-water pump heretofore employed is entirely done away with, and its ofiice is assumed by a dry vacuum-pump and a feedpump acting together.

In such exceptional cases of emergency where it becomes a necessity that the surfacecondenser of this novel kind should perform the work of an injectioircondenser, it will only be necessary to provide the cold-water pump, which may be a common piston'pump, with a three-way cock, so that by reason of the proper position given to the latter the said eold-water pump will draw the injectionwater from the condenser and force it out of the ship, while in surface-condensation the said pump is serving the purpose of forcing the cooling-water through the cooling-pipes of the condenser. This cold water pump must likewise be arranged so low that the water from the condenser flows into it by its own gravity, the dry vacuum-pump continuing to remove the air from the condenser, so that all the cold-water pump has to do is to remove the water. The injection-water is drawn antomatically into the condenser by the latter it self, which is always arranged low enough to perform this part of the work. The said dry vaenunrpnmp can for three reasons be made much smaller than the air or hot'water pump heretofore employed-that is to say, first, because it has to remove from the condenser the air only and not the water; second, because by reason thereof it can be run at a higher speed; third, as the air and hot Water are removed separately, the condenser will allow of being constructed as counter-stream condenser, (the steam to be condensed flowing in a direction opposite to that of the coolingwater,) which will again reduce the working capacity required for the air'pump.

It is evident that the employment of the former hot-water pump, which will draw air and water mixed together from the condenser, rendered it impossible to make use of such counter-stream principle in operating with injeetion.

The said dry vacuum-pump, of comparatively small dimensions andhigh speed, is arranged as an independent steam air-pump, which is driven by a smallsteam-engine whose speed is therefore independent of' the speed ofthe main steam-engine. The engineer has thus the full control over this vacuum-pump and can let itrun with j net the speed requiredthat is to say, slow when the condenser is acting as a surface-condenser, in which case the said vacuum-pump has only to remove from the condenser the air having entered the same at permeable places, and quicker when the condenser is acting as an injection-eondenser, in which case the vacuum-pump has to remove, besides the aforesaid air, the air absorbed by the injection-water. In this way the waste of the working power and fuel which has heretofore taken place in operating snrface-condensers by means of the large hotwater pumps is obviated, while, on the other hand, the same resultthat is to say, the same vacuum within the condenser-is nevertheless attained, although with the advantage that by far less labor or working power than heretofore has been spent in attaining that result.

The accompanying drawing is intended to illustrate an installation of surfaceconden sation arranged in accordance with the present invention, as above described.

The exhaust-steam to be condensed enters the condenser B from the main engine at A, near the bottom, so that the counter-stream principle will be used in surface-condensation as well as in injection condensation. Suppose as shown in the drawing, the condenser to be acting as a surfacecondenser. The cold-water pump K will in such a case draw in through the pipes a and I) water from the outside and force the same through the pipes c and d into the upper part of the series of cooling-pipes of the condenser. The platesp will cause the cooling-water to flow zigzag-like in a downward and opposite direction to that of the steam, rising on the outside of the cooling-pipes through the latter. The heated cooling-water will leave the condenser again through the pipef. The pipe 6, open at its top and rising from the highest point of the series of cooling-pipes beyond the waterlevel 8 s s of the steamer, serves for removing the air from the cooling-pipes, so that no airbubbles can form within the latter. The feedpnmp S draws the condensed water through the pipeg from thelower part of the condenser and forces the same through pipe h into the boilers--that is, together with the fresh seawater, which, by means of the proper position of the cock H, is allowed to enter the condenser through pipe 0 as additional charge, to make up for the losses of water or steam,which cannot be avoided during the continued circulation of the mass of water originally fed. to the boilers.

The dry vacuum-pump L will draw the air through the pipe Z from the upper part of the condenser and force the same into the atmosphere through pipe 0'. The gaseous mixture that is to say, the air and steam drawn oft by this dry vacuum-pump-practically consists nearly of air only, because it is sucked off at the upper or the coolest part of the condenser, where there can be but little steam, it being evident that the quantity of steam contained in a cold mixture of air and steam can be but small.

9 indicates plates inserted to compel thesteam near the bottomnand Jeturn to the outside ISC entering at A to flow zigzag-like around and between the cooling-pipes in a direction opposite to that of the water descending within the said pipes.

Now, if it should happen that the condenser before described should have to do the work of an injection-condenser, it will then be necessary only to connect the sucking-conduit of the cold-water pump K with the lower part of the condenser and the forcing-conduit of the said pump K with outside (which in the ar rangement shown in the drawings would be effected by turning both the cooks O and D through a quarter of a revolution to the right) to open the cock H and to close the two cocks F and E. In lieu of the said two cocksF and E, automatic back-pressure valves opening toward the outside or in an upward direction may be applied. Injection-water is now drawn into the condenser through the pipe 0, open toward the outside below the water-level, flows over the plates 1) in a direction opposite to that of the steam to be condensed, (on the counterstream principle,) and upon having done its work,and arriving in a warm state in the lower part of the condenser, is thence sucked off through the pipes m and b by means of the water pump K, and forced to the outside through the pipe n.

The vacuum-pump L continues its work steadily all the time, but with a somewhat increased speed, and removes the air from the condenser. The feed-pump S likewise eontinues its work exactly the same as before in surface-condensation. The suction-pipe g of the said pump S, entering the condenser at a somewhat lower level than the suction-pipe m of the water-pump K, will always find a sufficient quantity of water within the condenser, and even if, by reason of partly closing the injection-cock H, less injection-water than the water-pump K might be able to remove should enter the condenser.

Having thus described my invention, What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The combination, with a condenser, B,f0r sea-vessels, of the cold-water pump K, the pipes a b m, connected, respectively, with the outside of the vessel, the pump, and the steamspace of the condenser, the three-way valve or cock 0 at the junction of said pipes, and the pipes c d n, containing the three-way cook or valve D, and connected, respectively, with the pump, the water-space of the condenser, and the outside of the vessel, substantially as described.

2. The combination,with a condenser, B, for sea-vessels, of the cold water pump K, the pipes a b m, containing the three-way cook or valve 0, and connected, respectively, with the outside of the vessel, the pump,and the steamspace of the condenser, the pipes c d n, con-' taining the three-way cook or valve D,and connected,respectively, with the pump, the Waterspace of the condenser, and the outside of the vessel, and the fresh-seawater pipe 0, containing the cook or valve H and entering the top of the condenser, substantially as described.

3. In surface-condensers on sea going vessels, the combination of the condenser B, the pump K, the system of pipes abm, having the three-way cook or valve 0, arranged between the condenser,the pump, and the out-side board, the system of pipes c n (1, having the three-way cook or valve D, arranged between the pump, the condenser, and the outside board, and the pipef, having the cock or valve E, arranged between the condenser and outside board, the air-discharge cock or valve F, and theinjection cook or valve H, arranged between condenser and outside board, substantially as and for the purpose specified.

In testimonywhereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

FRANZ JOSEPH WEISS.

IVitnesses:

GEORGE GIFFORD, CHs. A. RICHTER. 

